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Friday, December 30, 2011

Even though I do not buy many of their miniatures﻿ currently, I think that Reaper is putting out some very good stuff. While bouncing around their website this afternoon, I found these, and thought I would share.

Talk about dynamic posing?!?! My PCs don't often come across owlbears, but if you like them (and I do!), I haven't seen one any better than this one.

I can't decide about this one. Is he really Victorian Sci-Fi ("steampunk" if you prefer)? He may be an alternate timeline, but I am thinking too modernist for VSF. Nice fig, though. Kind of makes me think of Captain Mal Reynolds.

These fellows remind me of the little gliding monkeys in X1: The Isle of Dread. Phanatons, that's it. Except for the totla lack of a gliding membrane. So maybe not so much. But swarms of them would be fun. I am thinking they might pop up on Venus in my VSF games, eventually. I have got to get done with the lizards and parrotmen and Mushroom men first.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

I usually don't get a lot of game stuff for Christmas. The reason for this is that my hobby tends to confuse most of the family, and my wife never knows "what you want the most."

This year, I received the following:

Welsh-English dictionary. Useful for my Republic of Wales faction in our upcoming (hopefully) Very British Civil War games.

Desert Fort, 15mm. From Battlefield in a Box. Originally for Flames of War (and still useful for that), I imagine it will see more use as a fort on Mars for my 15mm VSF games. For which it is darned near perfect, right out of the box. At $40, I recommend it.

Aztec Noble's House, Granary and Protoceratops Tent. From Acheson Creations. Resin buildings for my VSF gaming. They are destined to be used on Venus, or perhaps Earthin (When the Navy Walked). Will need a few more pieces for a small village, but a good start.

That's pretty much it, from a gaming standpoint. I am hoping to pick up a few minis this week with some Christmas money, but not too much going down in that regard.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

First and foremost today, a big thanks to all the veterans of the united States who fought in the Second World War, which began for the US 70 years ago today. Yes, I know we were late to the party, but at least we brought enough party favors for everyone when we did arrive.

Anyway, I finally got around to dragging the camera out and snapping a few shots of my in progress VBCW forces. If you recall, I am making a Free Welsh Republic force. First up is the unit of schoolboys I have shown previously.

Obviously, they are sitting in my display case waiting for the rest of my forces to be assembled. You can see some of my Papal States aeronefs in the background. I especially like the porter/veteran with the Lewis gun and the tin hat.

Second (and last, for now, until I can get some Regulars painted up), is the Rolls Royce Armoured Car. Thanks to the glass shelf it is sitting on, it seems to be floating in midair. Kind of a neat but unintentional effect. In my fluff, I am claiming the Rolls is a gift to the Republic from some Scots who want to keep the English busy out West, and out of the North.

I am planning on at least one 10-man unit of Regulars (part of the Welch Fusiliers, I think I decided) and some more armed civilians and a militia unit. I would also love to get one of the 1st Corps buses and a civilian truck I can mount a 2-pdr portee upon.

Monday, November 21, 2011

The gents at my gaming group here in town finally broke down and admitted that the prevalent rules set for WW2 15mm gaming is, in fact... Flames of War. Much maligned as a "buckets o' dice" game, or as "40K for WW2", the game still turned out to be surprisingly...

...fun.

Really, it was. Now I am re-considering getting some 15mm WW2 stuff to add to my massive ongoing projects list. Not until after Christmas, perhaps. But perusing the Battlefront website, I also found a heck of a deal for my real 15mm passion: a desert fort from Battlefield in a Box. Prepainted and looks tobe plenty big. Reasonable price too.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Caernarfon -- Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night. Celebrated by England for the survival of their King James I, the Provisional Government of the Welsh Republic will instead hold celebrations in honor of Guy Fawkes, who was cruelly tortured and executed for his part in an attempt to overthrow the monarch.

President Saunders Lewis will be giving a speech at sundown, followed by fireworks and a torchlight parade through the streets of the capital, culminating in a bonfire ceremony in which effigies of Edward the Adulterer and his Fascist pig of a Prime Minister, Moseby, shall be burnt.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

For my VBCW project, this tops the list: the new WWI bus from 1st Corps.

Just the thing for my Welsh Nationalists to charge into action against the British Fascist hordes! I also quite like the Minerva Armoured Car they have there as well. Even though it is a Belgian design, it might go well as a sort of 'technical'. Only have a Belgian crew available, but I think I could manage some head swaps and get there.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

And for good reason. Honestly, all of my hobby activities have been put on hold for the last two months. Blogging, painting, gaming... pretty much all of it. The only thing I have done was to finish off a few things that were 95% done anyway. If I get a chance, I will put up some pictures, but the finished stuff is:

The Public School Boys of Llanover, for VBCW

The Rolls Royce Armored Car, also for VBCW

The trio of 15mm Proxie tanks for VSF

Some writing and editing of WTNW: Aiships and Skypirates

And that's it. Maybe, once the doctors figure out what is wrong with my wife and get it treated, and when the pool gets finished, and when I decide if I am going back to my job... maybe then I will be more in the groove.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Just noticed that yesterday's post was #500. Funny that I reached that number here before my much older blog, Victoria's Boys in Red, which is at 495 right now. Of course, I copied a lot of content form some other blogs onto this one when I combined the lot of them...

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I know its been more than a month since my last post. But between the start of a new school year and my wife falling prey to a mysterious illness - and one that we are just now starting to figure out what the heck it is - I've been otherwise occupied. Its called Real Life and those of you that have one understand that it is more important than blogging or any other hobby activity. Those of you who don't... well, I feel sorry for you.

Since things are calming down a bit work-wise, and we have settled into a care routine for my wife, I hope to be more active on the hobby front. First and foremost is my looking forward to this weekend, with a convention being held aboard the USS Texas, and Mal Wright coming in for the day.

The young men are led by their headmaster, Professor Llewelyn, wearing the old school tie. They get very valuable support in the field from Great War veteran Robert Jones, formerly Corporal Jones of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers Regiment of Foot. He has acquired a tin hat and a Lewis gun from somewhere.

Obviously, they're not quite done yet, but getting close. Hope to finish them off this week if I can find the time. I'm also painting a few vehicles up, including one for the VBCW project, my Rolls Royce Armoured Car.

Friday, August 5, 2011

I had an idea a year or so back. For it to make sense, I guess you need to know that I have a good sized (32") flatscreen on the wall of my game room. It is usually hooked up to my sons' video game consoles, but does have an input that I could drive from a computer.

Anyway, the idea struck me when we played a couple of games of Star Frontiers. Good OSR Sci-Fi stuff there. I want to use my mini laptop and the big screen to put up video transmissions. For example, when the characters get a call on their vidphone, explaining a potential job, or when the enemy starship captain sends a threat to "lower your shields and prepare to be boarded, or be destroyed!"

I just imagine this as a really cool use of technology to make for a memorable gaming experience. Problem is, how do I make the videos look good? Does anyone know of a cheap utility that could help me make good backgrounds, animate aliens, that sort of thing? I mean, a Sathar is a big worm. I can act, but that's a bit beyond me. By the way, I hear its voice as a mechanical translator with a heavy German accent.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Something I just discovered, while shopping for some lizardmen suitable for my 6mm VSF project is that Games Workshop is giving away the rules for several of their older 'abandoned' games for free in PDF format. Those of you (like myself) who are of a cynical bent may think to yourself "Pffft! They really make their money on the minis anyway, so they are just saving the expense of printing the books."

And you would be right.

But, free is free. So the rules for their so-called "Specialist Games" can be found by going here. Then pick the game you are intersted in, and look under the resources heading. I downloaded Battlefleet Gothic and Warmaster, and am thinking about Necromunda and Mordheim as well.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Caernarfon -- The cause of the Provisional Republic of Wales has been much assisted by a recent shipment of supplies and war materiels from the Scottish Republic. The Scots are waging their own fight for independence in teh North, and giving King Edward the Adulterer a good thrashing! Knowing our desperate need for military hardware, the Scots have sent a Rolls Royce Armoured Car to assist us in our struggle against those still loyal to the English king in Cardiff, and the Blueshirt cronies they have brought in.

Model 1924 Rolls Royce Armoured Car

Once appropriately painted, this new addition to the Welsh forces will help us sweep the Fascists back to the London gutters where they belong. It is expected that the Welch Fusiliers will be receiving this beauty.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

As I may have mentioned before, Historicon is a great place to buy toys. Most of the major vendors are there, or at least their US representatives for the manufacturers across the waters. Except for Eureka. Nic comes over from Australia. I think it is because he likes to wear silly hats halfway around the globe from home. Anyway, between the dealers and the flea market - pardon me, "Wally's Basement", there's always a lot of stuff to spend your money on. And so, the final rundown, adding on to those things I have mentioned already (i.e., not including them).

2x Car Wars turning keys

3x Monsterpocalypse buildings - for BattleTech

Empire Helblaster Volleygun - another Dane bargain

Woodbine British Section (10 regulars in caps)

Woodbine Vickers HMG (4 figs)

Musketeer Minis VBCW "Toff and Gentleman's Gentleman" (2 figs)

Musketeer Minis VBCW Militia Standards (3 figs)

Musketeer Minis VBCW Militia Boys ATR Team (2 figs)

Parroom Station (?) Martian "Holy Man"

6mm Government Building (ptd.)

Fight's On! Suez Canal set

2x Tactical Conflict Systems 6mm buildings

JR Miniatures 12"x12" cobbled square

Small plastic "Welsh" dragon

1 toy dinosaur (Dimetrodon, actually)

8x BTD Viking Berserkers

18x Asst'd crocs and lizards from Iron Wind

8x Eureka Frogs with Muskets

13x 6mm Les Batiments Railway pieces

Les Batiments factory

Les Batiments power house

7x Parroom Station Clockwork Soldiers ($8!!!)

2x Parroom Station Tatsuhiro Mechanified Infantry Suits

Prof. Moriarty and Dr. Loveless

20x small fern bushes

2x 6mm boats

3x Foundry Victorian ladies

10x Foundry DA Sikhs

1x RAFM Sailor dropping timebomb

4x converted Martian marines

6x RAFM Martian shield gunners

1x RAFM High Martian

40K Vostroyan Mortar team (2 figs)

1x 15mm limber

1x Eureka Turtle Cavalryon Alligator

2x BTD Crocodiles

Package of 1"x1 1/2" metal bases

Pulp Figures Seebattalion Maxim (4 figs)

Pulp Figures Seebattalion NCOs (5 figs)

2x Vallejo paints

3x Army Painter basing materials

4x random bits

16x Small rock formations (orig. islands for POTSM)

And I think that does it. I still did not find everything I was looking to purchase. But I spent my money anyway. I should have held on to some of it for eBay purchases, but what the heck. The total makes it to just over 300 figures of various scales (mostly 25), plus 65 terrain bits, several books, and a few generic supplies. Wow.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

I know it has been a few days, but I am just now fully recovered from my relaxing stay in lovely Pennsylvania. Not that I saw a whole lot of it, because I spent most of the time indoors. But you don't want to hear about all that - you want to know about the games!

Beautiful terrain from Miniature Building Authority.

So by now it is Saturday, the last real day of games for Historicon. I have a game at 0900, a WWII game using a rules system new to me called NUTS! It's from Two Hour Wargames. The scenario was pretty simple: D-Day, American Airborne forces approach a village held by the Wehrmacht. Wehrmacht must hold village. Didn't enjoy the game. One of the main opponents was a 'psychic.' Always knew what my troops were doing even if there was no way for the troops to have such information. I didn't like the rules either. One of my troops dropped a hand grenade into a room full of Amis, rolled the best result possible, and the result was that two of the GIs charged up the stairs and killed not one but three Germans at the top. One of the Germans was my second best guy, and a 'Hero', unloaded his SMG at the GIs, while waiting at the top for them to approach, and missed totally. An unbalanced scenario maybe, and a bad opponent for sure, but any result that leaves a group of people in an enclosed area in which a grenade has gone off totally unharmed - not stunned, not anything? I didn't like the game.

Amis appear in the woods and ambush a Wehrmacht patrol.

NUTS! is my second time to try a game by Two Hour Wargames. I know a lot of people who like their games, but all I can say is, so far, I'm not a fan. I do really want to try the All Things Zombies rules one of these days, however, as I have heard nothing but good about them.

My next game wasn't to be until 1900, so I thought I'd hit the vendor's area and Wally's Basement (the flea market). the boys, on the other hand, were headed to their game at 1300; a game of Car Wars. I've been playing the game off and on since about 1983. Even been planning on getting a Matchbox scale game set up. So the boys take off; about 1305, I get a call from Greyson and they need another player since there's only the two of them there to play. Had a pretty good time. Killed Greyson's car, got rear-ended by a ramplate but survived (barely!), got revenge on the rammer by virtually eliminating him. Time was just about up so we called it, and I won (only 'kill').

My car. Twin MGs and a bumper trigger.

Dane in red, Greyson in green, myself in the rear.

When I was rammed. Greyson's car is against the wall, on its side.

My last game was one of the ones I most anticipated since registering: a G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. fleet battle. Simple scenario was that a new German aircraft carrier was damaged by a storm, and the British are trying to capture it while the Germans seek to prevent that.

Patrol boat HMS Courageous (fore) and cruiser HMS Essex

I liked the game. It was very similar to Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., and so it was familiar, with a few changes which had to be made in order to accomodate the third dimension. It seemed impossible to get to the carrier (the Valkyrie) before she made it off the table, and it proved so. Highlights of the game include the performance of HMS Cossack, one of my patrol boats absorbing fire from two German patrol boats and a German cruiser. After several turns, she was a wreck, and had three commanding officers killed aboard her. Finally, she settled to the surface, with no guns, no engine, and no officers left! Things looked very bad for the British side until the battleship finally got within range. Three German capital ships were crippled or destroyed, and three escorts, to the loss of three escorts on the British side. The Valkyrie did manage to escape, however.

The Valkyrie.

The Valkyrie is a total scratch-built job, except for the mast and the flight stand. Absolutely beautiful piece of work. I especially like the raised hangar on the flight deck.